Nazeer Bacchus

Nazeer Luis Bacchus is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism whose research explores ritual, embodiment, and religious experience through methods drawn from literary and religious studies. His current book project investigates the religious dimensions of seeing in biblical and early Jewish literature, tracing its formative role in the ways ancient writers conceived ritual, piety, and the sacred. Nazeer received his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from New York University in 2025, where he also served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities from 2025 to 2026. He is the recipient of the A.R. Pete Diamond Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship from the Society of Biblical Literature and the Mary Cady Tew Prize for Excellence in Religion and Literature from Yale Divinity School. His work has also been recognized by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Prior to joining Loyola Marymount University, he taught Hebrew Bible at New York University, The New School, and Jewish Theological Seminary. At LMU, he teaches a broad range of courses that invite students into sustained engagement with religious texts and traditions through curiosity, interpretive care, and ethical self-reflection on their roles as readers and interpreters.

Nazeer can be reached at nazeer.bacchus@lmu.edu